While Trenton officials are understandably elated that the appropriation the Christie administration awards cities in annually diminishing amounts includes a lot of extra scratch this year, it’s a cash award that comes at a high cost.

The extra allotment is meant to make up for expiring payments-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements for state buildings. Because the city cannot tax state-owned properties, the PILOTs have offered some compensation for the state holdings crowding Trenton.
In a story last week, Times staffer Erin Duffy spelled out the situation clearly.

The transitional aid program created by Gov. Chris Christie in 2010 doles out extra cash to struggling cities and municipalities, but cuts that amount annually in an effort to wean municipalities off the special aid.

In Trenton, the diminishing yearly allotments of transitional aid have replaced $35 million in Capital City Aid provided for years as a special payment in lieu of taxes to compensate the city for tax-exempt state buildings.

So the transitional aid, by its very arrangement, is meant to ebb away. And the payments in lieu of payments in lieu of taxes will diminish with the expiration of those agreements.

City council members now are discussing judicious use of the unexpected $6 million as a way of shaving the expected tax increase and adding to police department funding.
Given the ephemeral nature of these funding mechanisms, however, the city will be right back in the same bind next year.

Trenton needs a permanent source of funding, something along the lines of the previous Capital City Aid, so city officials can budget with some sense of certainty.
Last year, a request that a portion of the transitional aid Trenton competes for with other struggling cities be made permanent. That request was rejected because of the city’s unsound management structure.

State officials are right on that score -– a mayor indicted on charges of taking bribes does not inspire much confidence in Trenton’s ability to handle money. The city needs a change in leadership.

But the roughly 200 tax-exempt state buildings and the costs associated with thousands of state workers streaming into the city — such as wear and tear on city streets, public safety and other municipal services – are constant.

And the state’s capital city should be compensated for that on a permanent basis.